BY JULIE HENDERSON, LYNDA HAYES, ASHLEY PENNYPACKER HILL AND JENNIFER RAMSKI
Facilitating Teachers as Designers
of the Learning Environment
P
.K. Yonge Developmental Research School at the University of
Florida is one of Florida’s four university lab schools. Established in
1934, P.K. Yonge’s mission is to design, test, and disseminate innova-
tions in K12 education through serving a diverse student community. As
the result of a campus master plan evaluation in 2007, P.K. Yonge began
a multi-phase project to reconstruct their K-12 school campus, beginning
with the elementary building which opened in 2012.
A new state-of-the-art building is
scheduled to open for 21 teachers and
350+ students in four months. Input
had been provided and was incorpo-
rated into the architectural design and
construction, but interior design and
furniture specifications were not includ-
ed in the design-build scope. There was
no plan for furniture. As future inhabi-
tants of the space, teachers had to be at
the center of design choices, but they
were also designing the plane while in
flight — developing new ways of doing
school as the new facility was being
constructed.
Building Design and Construction
The design phase of the elementary
building at P.K. Yonge began in 2008
with input from many stakeholder
groups within and beyond the school
community. By the time the project
n PHOTOS BY MARISSA MOSS PHOTOGRAPHY
24 essentials | winter 2019